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Children's Department Tour

Welcome to the Children's Department!

The best way to tour the Children's Department is in person. We are located just to the right of the main stairway as you come into the building, and we'd love to meet you!

Display Case

You can't miss the Children's Department display case as you enter the room to your left. The Children's Staff do a great job of decorating this display case with fun, seasonal, or activity-related themes.

Brochures and Pictures of Programs

As you enter the Children's Department, check the shelves to your right for library brochures, newsletters, and pictures of recent events. When new pictures are put up, old ones are taken down and put in a basket. If you find a picture of you or your child in the basket, you can take it home!

Children's Services Desk

Our friendly staff are always here to help you. This is also where you register for events, sign up for computer time, and pick up BABE coupons.

Children's Department Pets

The children's department fish tank now overlooks the stairs in the main entry way, near the 1000 Book Club bags.

The guinea pig cage is still on the Picture Book shelves, across from the Story Time area. Please keep little fingers (and not-so-little ones) out of the guinea pig cage.

Story Time Area

Story times and movies are held in the Story Time area, which is decorated with murals of animals native to northern Indiana, painted by local artist Renee Erickson.

Children's Game Computers

Sign up at the Children's Services Desk to use the Children's Department game computers, or use your library card and PIN to get on one of our Internet computers.

Finding Books and Other Materials

If you have trouble finding a book you like, staff will be happy to assist you. We also have three computers just to help you locate materials, once you know how to look them up yourself.

1000 Book Club Bags

For your convenience, bags of 10 books each have already been assembled specifically for those participating in the 1000 Book Club. These can be found just outside of the Children's Department, in the main entryway. You are not required to use books from these bags, but you must be enrolled in the program in order to check them out.

Computer Software, Board Books, and Magazines

To your right as you enter the Children's Department, you'll find computer software that can be checked out for home use, board books, and magazines for parents and children.

Activity Kits

Look for Activity kits to your right just before you get to the Story Time area. (Find them in the online catalog here.)

Picture Books

Picture books are on the set of shelves across from the Story Time area. In the online catalog, picture books are identified as JE.

Early Readers

Early Readers are shelved between the Picture Books and more advanced Fiction. A subset of picture books, they also appear in the catalog as JE.

3rd to 6th Grade Fiction

Fiction for kids old enough to read to themselves (or for fun family reading-aloud time) is on the low shelves in the back of the room. In the online catalog, these books are identified as J3-4, for 3rd and 4th graders, and J, for 5th grade on up. A special section for Holiday books is right next to the Nonfiction section.

Nonfiction

Children's nonfiction is kept on the tall shelves in the back of the room. In the online catalog, you will know you have found a nonfiction book when the J, J3-4, or JE is followed by a number (like this). Colorful posters in this section help to explain the way nonfiction is organized in the Dewey Decimal System.